Gentleman's Bow Tie

I began working on the 10 or 11 metal squares remaining for the metal quilt replica last weekend.  My friends from Washington Court House brought me a lavender bucket that I promptly cut up into a square and a bow tie.  I broke down and took the shears to my dry mustard and added it to the whole mix.  A delightfully discovery in Foxfire 1 (the first in the series), was that this quilt pattern was called Gentleman's bow tie, and there is even a diagram of it.  I knew those books were full of information that I could use either now, or in the future, but I didn't have the time to read them when I had them before.  If you haven't read the Foxfire books, do so, they are a wealth of knowledge that is disappearing from our planet because the people of that generation did not learn by reading and they didn't write what they knew down either.
  The power company has yet to show up and the construction job is finished, so I am curious as to how they are going to find out about the power theft at my apartment without the power cord coming out of the beauty shop.  But I am hopeful that there are ways to get to the bottom of this aside from catching them red handed.  I did find a breaker in the basement that doesn't go to any place in my house, so that is something.  I also snapped a bunch of pictures of wires that mysteriously go through a common wall from my power box to the adjoining space.  Hopefully this will all work out and I will get a power refund or credit.  I don't really care if they get prosecuted or not as long as I don't have to pay for something that isn't mine or my responsibility.

Power Sources

Here is the old beauty shop that my apartment adjoins.  According to the electric meter, this side of the building has no service or power.  It strikes me more than a little odd that the extension cord (from the beauty shop front door) in the photo that goes to the combination miter saw at the next doors property and a circular saw the workers are using on the porch roof, is providing them power.  I know when my power is off I can't run a saw or anything that requires power!  My suspicion is that somehow they have "bootlegged" into my electric box (in my basement) and that I am paying for this construction project next door.  I have taken down the numbers of both the beauty shops meter and my meter for two days and the meter for the beauty shop's numbers have not changed.  I am pre-posting this blog on Friday to be published on Saturday and am about to call the power company so that they can catch the bootleggers in the act.  This whole new thing is much like the old thing...where I ended up paying Nesley Thomas's water bill for the year before I moved into her residence.  That of course will not be solved until we go to court next month.  This new problem will hopefully never see a court room, but I imagine someone has got some "splanin to do".  I am not trying to get myself evicted, but I will not tolerate someone taking advantage of me and my poverty.  This is a disgraceful type of deception and I am hoping that whoever is doing this will get the book thrown at them...imprisoned, fined, and that my electric bill can be modified to where I am paying for my power usage and no one else...thank you very much!

post script I am writing this six months later and am happy to report that my landlord is going to rewire my electric box so that I won't be responsible for power than I am not using to the back room where in fact the extra power drain was reflected for 6 months on my electric bill, and the St. Vincint De Paul Society paid the balance due on my electric bill.  When I found the breaker that went to the back room that adjoins my apartment and the beauty shop, I turned it off.  So...I have not had to pay for this problem for 6 months.  It is the difference between a good landlord and one like I had before which is a slumlord.

Music Room

Now that I have Les (Les Paul) back (far left), I am free to set up my recording studio.  As you can see Syd is right on top of the whole affair (far right in the green chair).  He is such a good kitty and has been through so much.  I am posting this blog on Thursday and may not get back here till Tuesday as I have a surgery scheduled Monday morning.  Keep your fingers crossed for me dearest readers.  I am getting better and better with each passing day!

Possible Arrangement

As promised I am posting a photo of the present metal quilt arrangement as it is this morning.  I got my USB camera cord in the mail yesterday and so I will be posting my progress on several projects in the coming days.  I had a wonderful visit yesterday with my Washington Courthouse friends.  They are always so potent with information and ideas that I sleep well after they leave.  They brought me a lovely lavender tin that made me realize that the purple that is already in the quilt could not possibly be lavender.  Color is very tricky, and the language about color equally tricky.  More on that later dear reader.

My Buddy Is Out Of Jail!

I am happy to report that I got my buddy Les Paul out of Uncle Sam's jail (Pawn Shop) on Saturday and I spent Sunday getting reacquainted.  The last time I saw Les was October 19th when I went to court against Nesley and her unethical lawyer.  I knew at the time that the deck was stacked against me (60%/40%) but my buddy Les stepped up to the plate and offered himself for ransom so that I could get a storage shed and the fuel for the trips to and fro.  This is the longest time that Les has ever served time at Uncle Sam's and I have promised him that I won't let anything like that ever happen to him again.  Lots of people have helped me out since last October and almost everybody without exception knows the sacrifice that I made and have had to endure since that time.  Lucky for me that my not so worthy opponents are grandiose and greedy, and that one of my virtues is patience.  I will be going back to court on September 20th for hopefully the final round with my X slumlord.  She will have a bit of trouble making her case in the face of the evidence I plan to present to the judge next month.  I think her greed and grandiosity will come through loud and clear as these two things are not easily hidden.  I have been told that I am loyal and trusting to a fault...which is true (two of my shortcomings).  That is what got me into this mess in the first place.  I am still waiting on my USB cable from Hong Kong and won't be able to show any updates on the metal quilt unless a friend drops by with a camera and can take the shot.  Likewise, this is not a photo of my Les, but it is his identical twin that I got from Google images.

Lost USB Cable

I left my USB camera cable in the library computer on Tuesday...so I am unable to show you the most recent picture of the quilt project.  I have finished a 4/6, and will continue to complete a 5/7.  All colors plus brown, grey, black and white are represented.  I try to be careful about things like that (remembering to take my cable), but I just must have been too tired on Tuesday.  No sign of it in the lost and found either!  No worries dear reader, I earned a few dollars doing surveys (MySurvey.com) and so I was able to purchase one of these with my earnings on eBay today with paypal money.  I can't wait to show you what it looks like (the quilt).  The cable is coming from Hong Kong though, so it may be a few days before I can post a photo depending on how fast the shipping goes.  I will be setting up a picasa slide show for you to view the whole process and progress of this project.  It is all on a flash drive except for the most recent photo.  I also put all my "legal" pictures on flash drive so that if and when I go to court, I can show the judge what all I had to contend with at the Paul Drive rental.

Where I Left Off On Sunday

This is what the quilt looked like on Sunday when I ran out of rivet material.  So close to being finished!  I have 3 squares that are not in this picture that are on the bench.  But I am holding off for purple if I can get it.

Out Of Nails

Thank you Eve and Hapi for buying me some more weatherstripping nails.  I ran out of these on Sunday.  I use them as rivets to attach the middle of the bow tie, and to mount the bow tie on the quilt square.  They are copper coated, and will be hidden on the final project.  I should be finished with the quilt project by next weekend if I don't run into any snags!

Sunday Blog

Sometime in the next few weeks I will be launching a new line of jewelry that focuses on my Native American ancestry.  This is at the suggestion of my friend Eve who has a knack for marketing ideas.  You can see that I have sprinkled in jewelry with a Native American twist all along from this photo that I took almost 3 years ago when I was living on Deming Ave. with Lori.  Perhaps I can get the Ohio Arts Council to give me a grant so that I can hire a photographer to take post card quality pictures of my recent and former work.  There has been little time to write grants and such as I have been moving (3 times since my last grant), and concentrating on other art.  I like to think that after all I have been through in the last year that I can concentrate fully on my art.  I am composing this on Saturday to be posted on Sunday as the library is closed on Sunday.  Hopefully, I will get back here to post a more complete photo of the quilt Monday.

Seven And Eleven

As of today I have 11 completed bow tie quilt squares mounted on my bulletin board, and 7 on the bench ready to finish.  This hazel colored recipe box will make a nice bow tie and background square when I take it apart this afternoon and slice it up.  Hopefully by Monday's blog, all these will be assembled and I can begin arranging them in their final order to be mounted on their permanent piece of plexiglass.  I will be spray painting a chocolate brown this afternoon that should be dry by Sunday.  I still would love to find a deep purple and a drab olive before I finish.  Heck...the odd lots probably has drab olive spray paint that I could use to make a bow tie and square.  I doubt that they have the perfect purple though.

Hot Pink And Mellow Yellow!

I cut out two more bow ties from the tin that Louise and I found in Columbus (Hot Pink), and the 25 cent yellow tin I found yesterday at the food pantry (mellow yellow).  I took my friend who is out of work to the food pantry Tuesday so that she didn't have to sit there all alone.  They have a thrift store in the front, and I spied a cute little mellow yellow tin, only big enough for a bow tie, and not big enough for a background square, while I was waiting for her.  I had to fight for both these pieces yesterday, but it was well worth sacrificing 4 saw blades and two hours of time.  I am now only shy of the color purple as I discovered I have some brown gutter spray paint I can use to make a square and a bow tie if I can't get a Hershey's tin.  There is always "more than one way to skin a cat" I have been told!  I am halfway finished with this project as of this coming weekend!

Also, against great odds, the magistrate has set aside his decision (May 2nd), due to my objection, and Nesley and I are going to trial after all (3 months after the decision in her favor:).  I couldn't be happier, as I look forward to exposing her for the slumlord she is, and damaging her chances of ever manipulating Franklin County Court system again!  I looked at the evidence I have acquired since last October when we went to court for the first hearing, and it is my belief that she may need a defense attorney this time around.  I look for her attorney to realize that at the pre trial he failed to ask me for discovery materials (which I could have provided had he asked).  It doesn't matter, I can give him discovery materials that will make him want to back out of the case, or I can just go to trial and surprise them with evidence that he has not seen yet.  I did notice that their original suit was for $3700 and they have dropped it down to $2400.  I have to wonder what changed since February?  The trial has not been set yet, so I have some time to inform all 3 credit reporting agency's that the plaintiff jumped the gun, and get that ($3700) taken off my record, as it is not over till the fat lady sings...and I haven't even started warming up yet!

Brown Tin

I got my eye on vintage Hershey's Cocoa tins on eBay for the metal quilt.  I won't get this one as it is priced at $9, and almost as much to ship!  Maybe I will get lucky and one will be up for grabs this year at the local thrift store or antique store.  The new ones have a paper label and are made out of plastic, otherwise I would just buy some cocoa with my food stamps and have a tin to use on my quilt.  I have faith that I will get brown, gray, and purple before the end of the project.  Let me know dearest readership if you spot any of these in metal out there in the world.  Most of the tins and trays I have cut up have cost less than a dollar, so you can imagine that I won't pay more than a few dollars to get what I want.  And...there will be other browns!

New Gizmo

I got a wonderful birthday present last month called a Linksys AE1000 High Performance Wireless Adapter.  Apparently this gizmo can get my home computer up and running on the internet.  I have not been successful at finding a signal that is not locked though, so I am hoping there is something I can add that will give me some more "hotspots" without padlocks to choose from.  This technology has escaped my knowledge up till now, otherwise I would have taken the bull by the horns and gotten one the first time Lori and I had trouble paying our internet bill.  We had our internet through the phone company, and when we were late on our payment they shut off our internet...but not our phone.  Dear reader you may remember that when I moved out of Lori's house, Lori's phone and internet was still in my name resulting in her running up a $150 phone bill after getting Time Warner Cable to install her internet fix.  I had gotten new service at my new place, and we spent an hour on the phone transferring everything.  Of course she didn't pay the bill, and of course even though I took her to court, she still has yet to pay that bill!  I marvel that there seems to be ways around everything. Patience dear reader, I am tunneling out!

Cauldron Of Tins

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the metal quilt colored tins.  I think I have plenty of tins to cut up for now and running out of space to store all them.  I still need gray, brown, and purple.  As you can see by the picture, I have a nice lavender...which brings up a good point.  In the absence of a true deep purple, the lavender tea can will do just fine.  After I get all the primary and secondary colors going, I will be looking for the different hues and tones.  A turquoise would be spectacular, lime green, robin egg blue (the sky is the limit).  I have decided on 35 squares for the total with the final one being my signature and date.  I should be half way there by next weekend.  Thank you both Debbie's, Aunt Sue, Gail, Eve, Hapi, and Louise for all your collaborations and support.  This has been great fun.